baer beginnings: Kitchen "After"

After our 2nd anniversary trip to Germany, we sort of forgot to document our kitchen progress, but there was still quite a bit of work to be done - putting in the recessed lighting, painting, all the trim work that was such a pain in the..., installing under-cabinet lighting, installing cabinet hardware, refinishing the floor, installing the vent hood, endless punch lists of all the little details, etc.

But here are some "after" pictures of how it all looks now. All done except the backsplash... who knows when we'll ever get to that! And someday we may get around to hanging things on the wall and "accessorizing". My Meme sewed the new curtains for us - love them. love her. :)

Imagine it with one day having a stainless steel double oven and fridge. We got the new microwave super cheap from Sam's because it was a display model.

That big blue bowl above the fridge was my great-grandmother's bread bowl. She used it all the time to make homemade bread and my Middie just gave it to me.

Chris and Wes discovered that awesome vent hood at Sears Outlet. It was originally something like $2K! It really sucks! (pun intended). And the gas range was a scratch-n-dent store purchase. It had 2 tiny scratches on it, which we would have caused eventually anyway.

Love how this coffee/wine bar turned out. This used to be the "pantry".

Sorry.. a little dark. And I have a cute old little side table to go where that chair is that was my mom's boss' from about a million years ago. I'm painting it bright yellow but it's been too cold/damp to finish it the past few weeks.

Huge walls intimidate me when it comes to decorating/hanging things. Especially with the table not being centered on the wall... need help!

I love walking into the kitchen in the morning to see this.

The under-cabinet lighting is one of my favorite parts - Chris did such a good job with it (and all the lighting... and the whole kitchen for that matter!) It's these LED strips that use basically zero energy.